An average day in my life in Slovenia looks more or less like this:
Normally I wake up two or three hours before work, so I have time for myself in the morning and I can get ready calmly. If I work in Lucija, I just need to leave the house 5 minutes before I start work, which is amazing! If I work in Piran, I take the bike and I cycle by the seaside.
Until know, I didn’t know that one can see the sea each every day and never get tired of it. There is something about the sea that cannot be described: it is always the same, and still, different each time.
When I arrive in Piran, I leave the bike in the main square because pulling it up the hill would kill me. The first months I was very careful about locking it, but now, I just leave it there, knowing that it will still be there even after 6 hours of work (let’s hope that this doesn’t change).
We would often have coffee in the morning, normally with some cookies, which is totally inconvenient if you are on a diet. It shocked me when I arrived here that they don’t use the Italian coffee maker, but they do it the Turkish way. I used to hate this kind of coffee, but have grown more and more into it. Especially when Simon makes it. He must have some kind of secret recipe because, it doesn’t matter how many times I try, mine never tastes as good as his. Another thing that you should know if you are a foreigner is that everyone will say dober tek, which means have a good meal, about a hundred times a day. Seriously, even if you are eating just a cookie or an apple, even if you enter the room just for one second, everyone will say to you dober tek. Probably the two words most used in Slovenian language.
Another thing that I have learned here in our Youth Centre is that the kids will always surprise you, and that each day is different from the previous one. Sometimes they will just talk to you about their problems and their personal lives, using a mix of English, Slovenian and mimics. Sometimes you teach them Spanish, and sometimes they decide that is time for you to learn some Slovenian, and they take their roles as teachers very seriously! Some days you will smile at their naïveté, and other days you will wonder how it is possible that a ten-year-old has more wisdom than you. They will totally beat you up when playing table football, or cards, or any other board game, and you will come back home with no dignity left.
But, at the end, most days you come back home with a warm feeling in your heart and a smile in your lips J
